How long have we urban dwellers got?

[GarethM]

So we all buying loose tea from now on ?.

 

As I guess even the glue used to seal the tea bags must release something into hot water.

[Squaredy]

55 minutes ago, GarethM said:

So we all buying loose tea from now on ?

Well I do now.  I quite like making it in a pot though!

[openspaceman]

5 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

Well I do now.  I quite like making it in a pot though!

Since I realised the tea bags contained plastic not that may years ago I took to using tea infusers and still brewing in the cup as I had previously with tea bags, I suspect I use a bit more tea per cup.

[GarethM]

1 minute ago, openspaceman said:

Since I realised the tea bags contained plastic not that may years ago I took to using tea infusers and still brewing in the cup as I had previously with tea bags, I suspect I use a bit more tea per cup.

It's alright it grows on trees 🙂, couldn't resist.

[daveatdave]

used loose tea for years and a pint pot.

[sime42]

16 hours ago, Squaredy said:

Yes apparently all our houses are filled with plastic dust (presumably from our clothes).  Even more shocking that a single cup of tea apparently can contain 14 billion (yes BILLION) microplastic/nanoplastic particles.  Here is a link re the tea bags: 

Microplastics: Premium teabags leak billions of particles - study

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

---

Microplastics in drinking water do not appear to pose a health risk at current levels, research suggests.

When you see stats like this you wonder what to think and what to believe.  Can we really swallow that many particles each time we make a cuppa?

 

Personally I have stopped buying tea bags containing plastic - I did wonder why my home made compost contained many not quite rotted tea bags even after several years of decomposition.

 

Is there any large scale independent

research about all these particles and how harmful they are?  Apparently it has been discovered that car tyre dust reached the poles at least fifty years ago!  So it is everywhere - we just need to know how it is going to affect us, and all the other organisms around the world that ingest it.

 

 

We stopped putting tea bags in the compost a couple of years back for the same reason. Wish we'd done it sooner, after spending quite a while yesterday fishing the remnants out of otherwise lovely well rotted compost. Maybe time to ditch the bags altogether and switch to loose leaf, I do drink a lot of tea.

 

I don't think there's been any large scale research done on the impact of microplatics in the environment and it's inhabitants, independent or otherwise. It's a huge piece of work to undertake and not much data yet as it's a relatively new phenomenon. The only thing we can be sure of is that it's not going to be a positive impact. 

Our only hope is to find bacteria or fungi that can eat all the crap with voracious enough appetites! A few contenders have been identified already I think.

[peatff]

We've always used loose tea, Co-op 99 brewed in a pot teapot but just before Christmas couldn't get any so had to use tea bags or go without. Back on loose tea as soon as possible though.

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

Our only hope is to find bacteria or fungi that can eat all the crap with voracious enough appetites! A few contenders have been identified already I think.

 

What could go wrong.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by AHPP

[difflock]

20 hours ago, peatff said:

We've always used loose tea, Co-op 99 brewed in a pot teapot but just before Christmas couldn't get any so had to use tea bags or go without. Back on loose tea as soon as possible though.

My uncle, one John Bloomfield, had, needless to say grown up with "proper" loose tea. When his wife at some point switched to tea bags, John insisted on carefully ripping the teabags open to make "proper" tea. Which did not really work due to the fines cunningly concealed within the teabags. What did that Yorkshire man say "Theres nowt so odd as folk".

[peatff]

13 hours ago, difflock said:

What did that Yorkshire man say "Theres nowt so odd as folk"

 

Nowt so queer as folk is the saying I use. My gran wouldn't entertain teabags as they were made with sweeping ups from when proper tea was made.